Yes, the 2.0.30 floppy driver seems to be evil :-( I also have a problem
with it which seems only to happen on machines with very little memory.
If someone wants to investigate it, try the following:
Boot linux with the option 'mem=5m'
Try some operations with the floppy, eg. fdformat, read, write.
The machine will crash or spill endless messages 'coudn't get a free page'.
I tried this on a box with real 5 MB of memory (386/40) and another one
with the 'mem=5m' option (AMD 5x86). I tried 5.25" and 3.5" disks. I also
tried the stock 2.0.30 kernel and 2.0.pre31-2.
hjb
-- Uncle Ed's Rule of Thumb: Never use your thumb for a rule. You'll either hit it with a hammer or get a splinter in it.